A Special Bond
by Equinox73099
Summary: my first story. a pokemon modern world au fanfic with ocs. inspired by another modern au called a new master's quest. a fresh high graduate has no intentions of becoming a pokemon trainer, until he gets caught up in a situation that changes his views, this is the story of that trainer. rated T for swearing and violence.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fan fiction, I'm going to make it short just to get used to writing and the website in general. I am a Long-time reader and hoping to get into the writing scene on here. If this works out the way I hope it does I will make this chapter one of a story, if not then I'll improve and probably still keep writing this as a story anyways. So here goes nothing I suppose. This is a modern Au Pokémon fanfic based in the modern world, saw a story with this Au before and it made me really want to try it myself and see where it winded up. I do not own Pokémon at all

"-indicates speech

'-indicates thoughts

-indicates passing of time

A Special Bond

As I stood on the stage, ready to accept the piece of paper and move onto bigger and better places, it dawned on me just how much I disliked my high school, no, my town even. Yes, I said town, not a large city one could lose themselves in, not even a medium sized suburbs, just a small rural town in Nowhere, USA.

Before I go further, allow me to describe myself a little. My name is Christian, I am the 6"1, black hair, brown eyes, nerdy guy that no one notices, not that I mind. I've had about as much as I can stand of most people here, not that they're bad people or anything, but my ambition goes beyond them so why bother getting close to any of them.

In case you didn't pick it up yet, people don't find my personality to be all that. As a matter-of-fact, most people that know me think I'm an asshole, and I am ok with that, as they're probably right, not that I care. I am an only child, so maybe that has something to do with it, maybe my parents just weren't that great at teaching me humility, or maybe everyone is just right about me being a dick.

Speaking of family, let's describe my home life. As was stated before, I'm an only child, so I don't have any siblings to bicker with. My parents are fairly well off in the world, so we've never struggled for anything. I was fairly spoiled as a child, I was the kid who always got the new games and systems and tried to beat them before others. My parents as far as I am aware have always lived happily together, with never even one hiccup throughout their shared lives.

You would think that someone like me, a nerdy guy with few friends who plays lots of video games would be out of shape, and if you'd spoken to me a few years ago you'd be right, but when I turned 16 my dad convinced me to get a gym membership, and since that point I've exercised regularly to keep at least some muscle and tone to my body. Guy has to at least try to look appealing, right?

Now that I've adequately described my personality and life up to this point, let's move into my fatal flaw, my ambition. Ambition is what's caused war, violence, and just general unpleasantness, but it has also caused great leaps forward throughout time, or so I tell myself. I dream of a life bigger than farm owner or store manager or even truck driver, so, what else is a guy to do but move to the city, but I'm getting ahead of myself. My plans, of course, are to move to a bigger city to attend college, then find work worthy of me, or just whatever I can find, and then I'll work my way up to my ambition.

I think I've described myself enough, wouldn't want bore anyone. As I walked up the steps onto the stage, I thought to myself 'this is it, the start of it all, the beginning of the rest of my life' suddenly I was next to the principal of my school, being handed my diploma, having my picture taken, 'don't particularly want to see those, although I bet mom and dad want copies of the damn things.' I thought, knowing how terribly un-photogenic I was. Next was the second set of steps leading off the stage, at least I didn't trip, one guy did it earlier and I'm willing to believe he was ready to die from embarrassment. Before I knew it, my seat was directly in front of me, and I was sitting back down entirely on autopilot, drunk on thoughts of the future.

After the ceremony finally concluded I met up with my family, had the same awkward chats as always with the distant relatives that showed up, then we decided it was time to leave. As I was walking to my truck, a gray ford, I noticed a shadow creeping from behind my back tire. Upon deciding to check it out, I round the side of the truck to find a purrloin giving itself a bath. "Shoo, go, I don't want to run you over, so go." It understood my request, and, after giving me a playful purr, it darted into the patch of forest beside the parking lot. 'How Pokémon seem to understand us so well while most trainers have to buy a translator just to know what they're saying, I'll never know.' I pondered as I started the truck.

Most people would be out celebrating the day they graduate, but not me. I went straight home then proceeded to go straight to my room, business as usual. The most I would celebrate tonight is telling my clan for the game I play about it. After I concluded my daily grinding with everyone, I decided to order pizza out of the desire to not cook or eat my parents cooking tonight. No offense to them, but cooking was a gene that skipped both of them, and they know it, considering how often we eat out or restock on easy prep meals, unfortunately we haven't bought more since last time yet, leading to my current solution to our dilemma.

After ordering the pizza I decide to have a shower, and as I'm walking towards the bathroom my mom notices me as she's leaving her and my dad's bedroom, and tells me, "you know, Chris, you can go out and celebrate, I am sure that's what most of your class is doing." I chuckle and reply with "when have I ever gotten along with my class, you know I dislike 98 percent of them." She smiles and says "Yes but it's your graduation, you deserve to celebrate!"

"I'll do something tomorrow, I just want to relax tonight." I say to placate her.

"Ok, I just don't want you to miss out on anything, this is a one-time thing, celebrating your high school graduation, you know?" she continues with a gentle tone and a motherly smile.

"I know you're just looking out for me mom, but I've got this" I say confidently, with a smile of my own, as I walk into the bathroom to begin my shower before the pizza arrives.

Afterwards, I decided to head to the living room to continue waiting the food to arrive. As I sat down on the couch I noticed a lump under the blanket covering the couch next to me. Forming a devious grin, I grabbed the lump on both sides, causing it to jump in surprise. As it shook itself loose of the blanket, the lump became more definable until it resembled our house pet, a furrett. Furrett looked up at me with an angry look on its face until it realized who I was, then her expression changed to a happy one as she ran over to my side of the couch to plop herself onto my lap.

After killing time mindlessly petting furrett, the pizza arrived, and I ate. Upon finishing eating I decided to go for a walk to help digest my food. Walking out of my house I heard what sounded like a large gust of wind. I sped up slightly, hoping to see what caused it, when I looked up and noticed a huge flock of starly flying overhead. 'Man, that has to be at least 50 or 60 of them' I thought with a hint of wonder, as it's fairly uncommon to see flocks of starly that large. Turning the corner on the end of my street, I notice two teens engaged in a Pokémon battle, and decide to stop and watch.

"Snubbull, use pound!" the first teen, a sandy haired boy who looked to be 15, maybe even 14, shouted.

"Teddy, dodge, and use tackle!" the second teen, another boy, this one raven haired, yelled, although he yelled it too late, as his teddiursa couldn't follow through quickly enough and took the hit, and flew backwards, out cold.

'Damn, just my luck, I would only catch the end of the battle.' I thought, the battle ending so quickly having left a bitter taste in my mouth. Like every young boy and girl, I was at one point going to take on the 8 gyms and become the Pokémon Master for the USA, but unfortunately, like most, once I saw the skill of those at the top, I lost my confidence in myself and changed my ambition, though I've always just told everyone else I lost interest. I never even participated in any Pokémon battles, never having gotten one for anything besides being a house pet.

The two trainers, after settling up on debts, began talking to each other.

"Hey, you're good, you planning on taking the gym challenge too?" the raven haired one asked after returning his teddiursa.

"Yep, when I turn 18 you can bet snubbull and I are going to make it straight to the top!" he replied cockily, an air of superiority surrounding him.

'Well isn't he just a prick.' I thought, deciding to continue walking.

Upon finishing my walk and returning home for the night, I awoke to furrett climbing onto my bed and licking my face, as per the usual, as I consider her better than most alarm clocks with her timing. Finishing my morning routine, consisting of showering, other bathroom needs, and eating breakfast, I decided to go for another walk, this time though, I would go to the forest just outside of town, and wander for bit, as when I moved away, I wouldn't see forests everywhere like this anymore, so I might as well start enjoying them while here.

Once I arrived and found a good place out of any mud to park my truck I just decided to wander until I wanted to return. After about half an hour of wandering, I stumbled on a strange sight. In plain sight, there was a pack of houndoom, complete with puppy houndour, all in the clearing. There were 4 houndoom and double the amount of houndour. Normally, most people are intimidated by houndoom, as they are intimidating beasts, I'll give those people that, but in this instance, I had a feeling they were frightened of something too, as it seemed they were all in rough shape, and the houndoom were grouped in a defensive pattern protecting the houndour. I tried making my way closer to the pack, only to find the houndoom closest to me, baring its teeth in a threatening manner and growling. Slowly continuing walking closer, the houndoom suddenly shot a beam of dark energy, an attack I later figured out was dark pulse, directly at me, causing me to have to dive out of the way.

Getting up and continuing the trip forwards, more cautiously now, the houndoom seemed to interpret that I wasn't whatever was threatening it and became cautious, but more open to my approach. Reaching the houndoom I found they were in even worse condition than I first thought, most looked malnourished and tired, and a sudden thought popped into my head. 'I sure hope they don't eat people, fighting off a pack of houndoom is absolutely not a part of my plan today.' I slowly reached my hand out to pet the houndoom closest to me, and it responded by raising it head into my hand and rubbing itself against it. Feeling relieved about the sign they were (hopefully friendly) I took stock of the houndour, who appeared to be in much better condition than their fully grown counterparts. But one from the litter stuck out especially, it was the same size as the others, but it had a blue coat of fur instead of black, "holy shit, a shiny, I've never seen one of you in person before buddy." I said out loud.

Suddenly all the houndoom turned in the direction I was facing and started growling, looking even more menacing than they had when staring me down, if that's believable.

All at once, hell broke loose. Two nets flew in from the direction they were facing, trapping myself and the pack, the houndoom attempting to scorch them with flamethrowers, but failing. 'Must be made out of some kind of flame resistant material' I thought wildly, reaching for the pocket knife in, well, my pocket. Once I managed to get the knife out I began cutting, or trying to anyways. 'This is going to take forever, what the hell's this cord made of!' I desperately kept sawing at the cord, knowing I was out best way out, because only I and the shiny houndour had any freedom of movement, and houndour did not seem to be capable of breaking through on his own, as it was wiggling its way over to me in an attempt to help.

"Hey, what the fuck is this!"A voice said from the forest in the direction the nets came from ''we caught a kid with the damn target!"

"What's a kid doing all the way out here?" a second voice yelled, and at this point I didn't care what they were saying, as I was about a third of the way through a piece of the rope, with houndour almost halfway through another strand just from biting and scratching it.

"Hell if I know, but now we're gonna have to deal with him along with the rest of the trash here." Ok, I did care about that, as it chilled my veins and, if it was possible, made me start cutting the rope even faster. 'Just a little bit more... no way in hell am I going to die out in the middle of the fucking forest just outside my hometown of all places. That is NOT going to happen.' I thought to myself resolutely.

 _Snap!_

Both mine and houndour's cords snapped at the same time, making a hole big enough for it to squeeze through, but it chose to stay in the bag, helping me make the hole bigger both for myself and his pack. The two people were close enough now that I could hear their footsteps as well as their voices. More and more cords were breaking, now to the point I thought I could fit through, but I wanted to keep the element of surprise, so I stayed in the bag, the pack seemed to agree with me because they all stayed too, although maybe they couldn't leave until I left, but if that was the case, they'd be biting and scratching me to get by me.

A face suddenly appeared in my line of sight, and I had the face of one of the hunters who had captured me and the houndoom. The man had a buzz cut with a scraggly beard, was missing teeth, and screamed ' _Pokémon poacher'_ "Hey kid, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked voice rising with every word, on the last word spittle flew from his face onto the ground in front of me.

"Nothing much, just walking around, or I was until you caught me anyways." I replied plainly, trying not to show that I was fucking _terrified_.

"Aren't you a brave little shit, you do know what we're going to do to you right?" he said, laughing afterwards.

"Well I don't suppose that would be letting me go, would it?"I joked

"Nope."

'Well shit'

Deciding now was as good a time as any, as he was right on top of me, staring down with a malicious gleam in his eyes. So without giving myself any time to have second thoughts, or for his unseen friend to get any closer, I reached my hand through the hole we'd made and stabbed him in the leg. He collapsed with a "fuck!" and I picked myself up and ran through the hole, the pack following suit.

Once everyone was out, we all split off, I assumed it was to give the poachers more targets to follow, and, looking behind me, I noticed the shiny houndour was following me, a determined look on its face. "ok buddy," I began, "we're going to head back to my truck and go get the police to come here and get these guys, ok?" he understood, as he shook his head, so off we went on our merry way.

'Let's see here, truck...truck, where did I park again.' Having lost my bearings temporarily in the scramble to get away from them, I took a moment to recollect my surroundings and noticed something. "Shit," I swore "the truck is back in the direction we came from, we have to turn around!" but turning around meant risking running right into the same poachers we just struggled to get away from, but what choice do we have... "Alright buddy, we have to go back this way to get to my truck, those guys should've gone off chasing a group by now, so we should be-"

"You're right there, we did chase a group, it just so happened to be your group." The second voice yelled as he entered the area we were in. 'Oh, wonderful' I thought. This time it was the second man that entered the clearing, and he didn't look any better than the other one. This man had long brown hair, a long beard, and tattoos all over his arms.

"I'm not gonna make the same mistake my partner did and deal with you myself." He said, pulling a pokeball out of his blue jean vest. 'Who the hell wears those anymore, actually, who the hell ever wore those.' Noticing he intended to start a pokemon battle, I said "wait! I don't have any poke-"I couldn't finish as houndour ran between my legs to get in front of me, indicating he wanted to fight for me.

"Do tell that mutt to back off; I don't want to bring in the target damaged." The poacher said with a sigh.

"Why are you targeting these pokemon?" I demanded

"kid, you know how much shinies go for nowadays, just finding one is the equivalent of almost 20 normal pokemon of the same species!" he exclaimed.

"So, you're a greedy bastard who chooses to hunt and hurt pokemon because you're too shitty to make an honest living, basically."

"You bitch, you're gonna pay for that..." he said menacingly, but at this point most of my fear has been replaced by anger so I could care less. He then proceeded to throw out his pokemon. "Go vigoroth!" he said, throwing out the sloth pokemon that was by no means from anywhere near here. 'If I remember correctly that's a normal type, so no advantages or disadvantages' "Ok houndour, looks like we have no choice but to fight our way out of here, so let's see what you can do." I said to try and boost both mine and houndours confidence.

"Ok Houndour, use ember!" I started things off

"Vigoroth, use mach punch." he said, as vigoroth took the ember.

"Dodge houndour, then use quick attack." I countered. Houndour complied and dodged, the punch, only to become a blur and slam into vigoroths back, causing him to lurch forward unsteadily. The second poacher's eyes suddenly had a small amount of doubt in them, wondering if maybe I stood a chance against him after all.

"Vigoroth, use rage!" he called out, wanting to end the battle as soon as possible.

Houndour was too close to dodge this attack, and was sent flying back towards me, but it got back onto its feet quickly, keeping a determined glint in its eyes.

"Houndour, use dark pulse!" houndour looked back at me sadly, 'Ok, doesn't know that yet, let's try...' "Ok use bite" he turned and quickly ran towards the opponent, fangs latching onto the vigoroths arm, not loosening up no matter how much it shook them around.

"Take advantage of it, vigoroth, use mach punch now!" Vigoroth suddenly smiled and started mercilessly beating houndour with blows until he let go and flew back to me.

Houndour got back to his feet, albeit unsteadily this time. 'Both of them are at their limit.' both trainers thought grimly.

"Houndour use ember!"

"Vigoroth use rage!"

Fortunately, ember has significantly more range, than rage, so houndour was left standing as vigoroth collapsed. The poacher was at a loss, until he looked up and noticed me sprint past him, houndour in my arms. Then his face took on the visage of rage.

About ¾'s of the way to my vehicle, I was forced to stop and catch my breath, letting houndour out of my arms; it sat down and watched, on guard for anything coming after us. "Hey, houndour, quick question, are you a boy or a girl?" I asked it, honestly curious, even though the timing was terrible. "Ok here's how we'll do this, nod your head if yes, shake it side-to-side if not, are you a boy?" he nodded his head. 'ok, now I have a gender for the pokemon, good to know.' I got up, saying "I've rested long enough buddy, we need to move before they catch up with us, if you're able to run now let's go." Houndour answered by taking off in the direction they were going, soon stopping to let me by him so I could lead.

Finally, we exited the forest, only to find the poachers both waiting by my truck, pokeballs in hand.

"How's the leg and the loss treating you fellas?" I said bravely, they only sneered in reply and threw their pokeballs out, the same vigoroth from before, I assumed, healed, and a pupitar popped out, both ready to fight.

Suddenly, the rest of houndours pack came out of the forest as well, all blasting different attack, knocking out both the pokemon and the attackers in one fell swoop. I dropped to the ground, knees weak, and the pack surrounded me, licking me all over, thanking me for saving one of their own.

Maybe 20 minutes later found the poachers tied up with fishing line in the back of my truck, pokemon in their pokeballs inside, away from the poachers. 'Damn shitty service, I wouldn't have had to do all this if I could call the cops from here but oh well.' I turned to the pack, who had been watching me do all that, and they all suddenly stood up, satisfied that I was going to deal with the poachers, and began clearing out, it was only when the shiny houndour and one houndoom remained that the houndoom came up to me and licked me one last time, and began walking away, beckoning to the houndour as well, who was hesitating.

The houndoom began looking at houndour, and suddenly they began having a conversation "houndoom" "dour, dour" "doom" "houndour" what it was about, I could only guess, but it seemed like the houndour was against leaving. Suddenly he came up to me and beckoned for me to open my door so he could get in the truck. I became wide eyed and looked back at the houndoom. Who looked back, I could've sworn smiled a little, then ran off. I looked at houndour and said "do you want to come with me little guy?" he shook his head yes. So, I gave him a huge grin, opened my door, and said "come on then!" he hopped in without hesitation, then I ran around, got myself in, and we were off.

Once at the police station, I gave my story to an officer named jenny, then was allowed to leave after turning in them and their pokemon. Then, once I pulled in my and got inside with houndour, I was bombarded with questions from my parents about where I'd been all day, as I was supposed to have only been gone for a few hours. After explaining the story to them as well, they were just relieved I was alright and happy that I found a friend in houndour. Then I gave them a revelation that shocked them both, "Mom, dad, after fighting for my life today, I've realized something, and decided something off of what I realized. First, I realized pokemon battles are possibly the most fun I've ever had, and if I wasn't fighting for my life, I would've immensely enjoyed myself." I then continued "And what I decided was that I want to go on a pokemon journey and take the gym challenge, I talked this over with houndour coming back, and he agrees, so I hope you'll support our decision but I plan to leave anyways." They both looked shocked, but then they both grew wide smiles on their faces, "Of course we support you!" they exclaimed "You're our son, of course we would, we understand that if it's something you want to do, nothing we say would change your mind, and we know that you'll take good care of yourself and your pokemon." My mom said, and my dad followed up with "so long as it's not getting addicted to drugs or alcohol, of course we'll support you, if it's what you really want to do, although you'll have to get a pokedex, lucky for you, I know a guy for that" he said, chuckling at the end.

'Well that was easier than I thought it would be.' I thought going to my room with houndour. "Well buddy, tomorrow, we start prepping for the journey, tonight, we eat, and then we sleep, because we've had a damn trying day." I said, and he agreed with a yawn.

As I was falling asleep I thought wearily 'you know houndour, me and you make good friends, and a great team...'

AN: hope you enjoyed the first of hopefully many chapters, if this feels rushed, it's because it was lol. Again, this is just me dipping my toes to start things off. Once I get more used to writing in general and the site my writing will become better, hopefully with the help of any of you that choose to read and leave a review! Constructive criticism to help improve is appreciated, but please be gentle. See you when I decide to write another chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

Hope everyone that read enjoyed chapter one. I rushed it out and wrote it all at once. Will not be doing that again, was not a fun experience and I'm sure the writing felt rushed when you read it as well. Here's chapter 2 of 'A Special Bond'. Again, I, own nothing. R&R :)

The next few days flew by in a flash. Between getting used to houndour and getting him adjusted to my home, along with shopping for supplies for my upcoming journey, I was kept fairly busy. I had decided to journey on foot, as I felt taking a vehicle would cause me to miss out on too much experience, so shoes were high up on my list of priorities. After shoes I figured a good travel bag to store clothes and a sleeping bag in would come in handy. Add in other essentials for the trip, and I had already spent most of my graduation money, but again, they were essentials, so it was fine.

Using the last of my funds, I went for the trainer section of the nearest store, and stocked up on potions and full heals, plus a few pokeballs in case I found any pokemon I took a liking to. Upon returning home, I walked inside to find houndour attempting to catch furrett, and failing miserably. Furrett was clearly baiting houndour, with a mischievous look on her face, as she ran down the hallway, houndour hot in pursuit with the same determined look in his eyes as always, but there was a hint of happiness in there as well. 'Oh well, at least they're enjoying themselves.' I thought to myself, fondly.

After about half an hour they both returned to the couch I was relaxing on, and decided to hop up and lie down on my legs, and that was where we stayed for nearly 2 hours, all of us falling asleep comfortably.

 _Ding! Ding!_

I was awoken to the sound of the doorbell ringing. As I opened the door, a man stepped in with graying hair and a lab coat, "hello! You must be Christian." The man said with a smile.

"Yep, that's me." I replied nonchalantly, as houndour walked closer to find out who was here.

"Ah, and this must be the houndour your father told me about, my my, a shiny, and a houndour no less. Did you know that houndour are actually extremely rare for this area, they're mostly found further west, and this is mostly mightyena territory. They must have been chased fairly far by those poachers you apprehended, fantastic work on that by the way, any friend to pokemon is a friend to me, and you have most definitely proven yourself a friend of pokemon, judging by you risking your life for them." The man said excitedly, clearly interested in houndours odd coloring, yet trying to make small talk.

"Uh, who are you?" I questioned.

"Oh, did your father not tell you I was coming?" he said "That does sound like him, he was always slightly forgetful... well my boy, to answer your question, I am the pokemon professor, Professor Oak, perhaps you've heard of me?"

My eyes grew wide, as I had heard of him before. Professor Oak was the name of one of the leading pokemon professors, possibly being the most well known of them all. "Yea, you could say that," I retorted weakly "But why are you here sir?" I finished respectfully, as I was now aware of his status.

"Please, don't call me sir, it makes me feel older than I already am," he joked. "And I'm here because your father told me you were about to start a journey and are in need of a pokedex." He then proceeded to reach into his jacket pocket and pull out said item.

"W-well yea, I am, but are you sure you want to just hand one of those out, they're supposed to be expensive!" I stuttered out.

"You know Christian, back in the days before these became mass produced for trainers, I personally handed these out to trainers I felt could be better off with them, not to mention they helped me study pokemon." The professor answered. "Just ask your father, I gave him his pokedex when he started his journey, he was very helpful for my research before he decided he had had enough of exploring."

"WAIT, WHAT?!" I yelled, causing furrett and houndour to jump. "Yes, your father was a fantastic trainer, although his focus was more on finding pokemon than it was about badge collecting, although if I remember correctly, he had 6 badges throughout 3 different continents before he took a job at my lab and settled down." He finished

"So... you're telling me, my father was a trainer too, and a good one at that." I double checked to make sure it was my father he was talking about.

"Yes, he was." The professor replied.

'Well, isn't this a revelation.' I thought, wondering what all he'd done as a trainer.

Professor Oak then reached out the hand with the pokedex to deposit it in my own hand. "Tell me, are your mother and father going to be home soon?" he asked, "it's been a long while since I've seen them, and I'd enjoy sitting down to catch up"

"Uh, they're at the grocery store at the moment, they should be home-"I was interrupted by the sound of my parent's car pulling up. "I guess they're home now." Oak laughed, and said "perfect timing then, oh before I forget, before you leave for my journey, you should stop by my lab, when you do, I'll gift you a pokemon from my lab, it's a tradition I used to do back in the day, and I'd like to keep it going." He finished with a smile, which I returned. As my parents walked in, I greeted them then retreated once again to my room to let them talk.

After spending some time figuring out the ins and outs of my new pokedex, I decided it was time to officially catch houndour, now that I had pokeballs. "Ok buddy, here's how this is gonna work, I'm just gonna tap this button against your forehead, wait a few seconds, then release you again, ok?" he didn't seem very enthused with the idea of going into the pokeball, but agreed with a slow nod. After the customary _shake...shake...shake...ding!_ Houndour was caught, and I released him, which he seemed grateful for. 'Note to self, houndour doesn't like pokeballs, guess I'll be mostly leaving him outside.'

One visit to the gym and a shower later, I was sitting on the couch once again, the professor having left while I was gone, but leaving a note with the address of his lab and his phone number, saying " _If you have trouble finding the place, just call for directions!"_

I pocketed the note for later and continued talking to my parents, "So let me get this straight, you were a pokemon photographer?"

"Yep, I photographed and battled pokemon from many different areas for the professor, learning how they behaved in their natural environments was a great experience, along with befriending many people and pokemon." My father said, eyes seeing past me, reflecting old times.

"It's also how your father and I met," my mom continued "I met him on one of his final excursions; he was visiting the mid-west to photograph bouffalant herds and happened to stop in my home town. I was working as a waitress at the time and happened to overhear what he was doing and after that we started talking only to find out how much we had in common." She said grabbing my father's hand after finishing speaking.

"Right, well I'm gonna leave you two before I see something I don't want to see." I replied

"ok." Both simply replied at my lame attempt at a joke, smiling at each other.

Before I knew it, I was pretty much ready to leave for my journey. All that was left was to visit Oak's lab, which was about an hour long drive from my home. The lab he told me to visit was near a nature reserve in Missouri, and was one of nearly a dozen he owned across the US. Pulling in, the fence surrounding the compound seemed to go on for miles, with only a single, large building to show the area was inhabited by beings other than pokemon. After parking and approaching the building, I was approached by a scientist, or lab assistant of some sort, "excuse me, do you have business here?" he asked, a bit brusquely "Yea, I'm here to see professor Oak, is he in at the moment?" I questioned in return. "Do you have an appointment with him?" 'Ok this question for question shit is getting annoying' I thought, aggravated. "Does this count?" I replied handing him the note Oak had left me. Upon seeing it, the assistants eyes grew slightly and he said "Oh, you're the one the professor said to be waiting for, sorry about all the questions, but you know, you can never be too careful these days; now, come with me please, I'll take you to him."

'Wonder what happened to make that necessary.' I pondered. As we walked inside, we were greeted by a fossil of a pokemon, what seemed to be a kabutops. As we walked down a hallway, the assistant branched off into a side room, and I followed him in to see the professor and a Mr. Mime trying to calm down an angry ariados. "Ariados, we need you to stay still so we can get a look at your injury!" Oak said, with Mr. Mime seemingly repeating what he said to ariados. The ariados replied with a string shot to Mr. Mime's face.

"Um, do you need some help professor?" I asked, gesturing to houndour, who nodded in agreement. "Yes, I suppose we do, although I was hoping to do this without harming him..." Oak replied, as me and houndour took a battle stance.

"ar-ariados!" the spider pokemon also took a battle stance, flinging another string shot at houndour.

"Houndour, burn the web with ember!" I said, and houndour complied, burning through the web, and having enough leftover power to also hit the ariados.

"Houndour!" houndour seemed to be egging the ariados to get up, enjoying the battle.

Ariados did manage to stand up, but you could see the attack had done serious damage, as he was wobbly on his legs. Even weakened, it still managed to use poison sting, and hit houndour with it, although he took the hit in stride and countered with another ember, ending the match.

"Great job houndour!" I said, as oak approached us. "Yes, that was quite a good battle, you both make a great team." He said, applying a potion to houndour to heal him, then walking over to the ariados, and pulling a splinter of wood out of one of its legs. "So this is what was causing it to be so aggressive..." he said to himself, as he applied a revive and potion to it as well. As the ariados stood up, it seemed much calmer, nodding to the professor, then to me and houndour, then going out through an open window, back into the forest. After a moment of watching the window, Oak turned to me and said "Alright, let's get you your new pokemon then you can begin your own pokemon journey." He then proceeded to leave the room, so I decided to follow him out, the assistant staying behind to clean the room we were just in.

Back in the main room of the facility, the professor went to a table in the corner of the room full of pokeballs. "I've brought these guys here specifically because I think they are all pokemon that could benefit from seeing the world with you, Christian." He swept his arm over the table to emphasize his point. "the pokemon here all belong to different labs of mine, and I had them transferred here just for today, they all understand that one of them will be joining you, so go ahead, make a choice." He said, standing aside. "Ok, I'm just gonna make it at random if you don't mind, that'd be a lot of pokemon to look at, and I don't want any of them to feel disappointed if they don't get chosen, so random seems best."

"Sure, go ahead."

As I stood in front of the table with around 30 pokeballs on it, I decided to simply close my eyes and feel around for a bit until I found one I wanted to pull up. After around 20 seconds, I stopped and randomly grabbed one. Then I opened my eyes and released my new pokemon from its pokeball. "Raltz!" my second pokemon greeted with a smile, which I returned. 'A psychic type, huh.' I thought, slightly happy that it wasn't another fire or dark type, although I would have still used it because it was a gift from the professor, it would have been a disadvantage to have two of the same type on my team. 'Good thing I don't have to worry about that now.'

"Ah, good choice; Raltz is from my lab near the great lakes, she's very energetic and caring, you three will get along great!" He said as he pet Raltz on the head.

"well, now that that's taken care of, is there anything else you need while I'm here professor, I'm planning on leaving in the next two days, so this will probably be the last time I come by here for awhile."

"Now that you mention it, there is something I forgot to do when i gave you that pokedex, do you have it on you?"

"Yea, here you go." I said, handing him my pokedex.

"What I had forgotten to do was set a laboratory to send the data from your 'dex to, you see you're actually helping me out as well by sending me data on pokemon you find, it's fairly helpful to do this every so often to see how Pokémon's habits and habitats change over time, I am a scientist after all, and a scientist must keep accurate information. Anyways, there, I have it set now, here you go, Christian." He finished messing with the pokedex and handed it back to me.

"So, am I all set now?" I asked, Ready to go home and sleep before I leave.

"Yes, you should be, just remember my phone number should you need anything, Christian, other than that, good luck on your adventure!" he happily finished. Afterwards I shook his hand and proceeded to leave to begin the drive home, taking it slow as I wouldn't be in my truck again for a long while. Upon arriving home I parked my truck out of the way so I could leave it at my parents' house without it bothering them. Then I made my way inside, exchanged greetings with my family, and went up to my room, for the last time for a long time.

The next day arrived with both happiness and sadness lingering in my mind. While I was ready to begin my adventure with raltz and houndour, a part of me was still sad at leaving my parents so suddenly, and although they understood, I could see the same sadness reflecting in their eyes as well. Before I knew it, it was noon and time for my departure. My mother told me she'd drive me to the edge of town, just to get me started, and I agreed, not wanting to see anyone else I'd have to say goodbye too, because there was no one else I particularly wanted to say goodbye to.

She stopped at the edge of town and I hopped out of her sedan. As I got out, I saw her eyes tearing up, said one last heartfelt goodbye, and set out walking with houndour at my side, and raltz in her pokeball, not looking back.

AN: shorter than last time, didn't write it all at once, but now that I'm past the introduction and the familial goodbyes, I can get into the actual journey, and make things more interesting. Hope anyone who read enjoyed, see you next chapter.


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